A STAR has been born - and the people of Bolton have been lucky enough to see it happen.

Alex Bogdanovic may look as though he has just left school (and in actual fact he has) but it betrays a cold inner belief and a desire to make it to the top.

And at the National Championships in Bolton this week he has officially arrived.

After despatching top seed Martin Lee on Tuesday, 17-year-old Bogdanovic beat James Nelson in three sets yesterday to march into the semi-finals.

Bogdanovic, a left-hander with some ferocious ground strokes, fully deserved his win and, bearing in mind that he is still physically developing, the youngster has a great future in the world of tennis.

Meanwhile, Victoria Davies produced a shock to rival Bogdanovic's win when she dispatched Elena Baltacha in straight sets.

The 29-year-old British number 19 took full advantage of the 18-year-old's hesitation to clinch the first set 6-2 before edging a nerve-racking tie-break.

Baltacha squandered two set points, the second with a double fault, before Davies took advantage of her second match point at 10-8.

She goes through to face Anne Keothavong - who beat Lucy Ahl 7-6, 6-3 yesterday - in tomorrow's semi-final.

Top seed Julie Pullin fought back from a set down to beat Annabel Blow, an 18-year-old, 4-6 6-4 6-4.

Meanwhile Lee Childs overcame second seed Jamie Delgado yesterday when the former champion retired at 6-2 and 4-1 down with a virus.

It was a good win and convinced Childs that his new relaxed training attitude to tennis is paying off.

He explained: "If you live and breathe tennis, in terms of it being all you do day in, day out, I believe you'd just burn out. Your brain would just fry."

Childs will face Barry Cowan who came through in straight sets against James Auckland.

Third seed Arvind Parmar is also in the last four of the men's competition after a gruelling 7-5 3-6 6-4 triumph over last year's runner-up Mark Hilton.

Now he faces Bogdanovic, the wonderkid, and that should certainly be a contest to watch.